When Two Swords Meet
by mage-cat
Summary: A prequel to my "Never Hear the End of This" fics.  Brooklyn's arrival and first adventures in Ishimura.  Brooklyn/Katana or at least the build up to it.  Please review.


**When Two Swords Meet**

_This is not good_, Katana thought. Of course, 'not good' was a major understatement, but allowing herself to think anything more accurate was to invite panic, and panic wouldn't solve anything. This was supposed to be a simple scouting mission in the forest. The pale blue warrior was not supposed to be facing an _oni _that towered above her. No warrior she had heard of had ever defeated an _oni _solo. Thus far Katana had been able to avoid blows from the creature's club, but the hits she had managed with her swords had yet to strike a vital area and seemed to only be annoying it. She and Kaze, her mentor who was two rookery generations older then her, had split up to cover more ground in their search, and the elder _tengu_ was apparently too far away to have heard Katana's call for aid.

As she struggled, she saw flames flare and quickly die among the trees to her right. She was only able to faintly register this before a green-skinned, brown-maned gargoyle beast appeared from that direction and threw itself at the _oni_. The beast was quickly followed by what appeared to be a red male _tengu_ about her age with white hair and a strange metal object braced against his shoulder yelling, "Get down!" The hole at the end of the object began to glow and a ball of fire launched itself with a loud, bizarre noise at the huge creature, hitting it square in the chest. This was enough to make the _oni _lose its balance and fall over stunned. Katana used this as an opportunity to get in the fatal blow the reach of the _oni_'s club had denied her and slit its throat. Without a pause, she approached the male and pressed the cutting edge of her wakizashi where his beak, longer and somewhat narrower than her own, met his neck.

The male looked, rather understandably, slightly panicked, "Whoa! Is this how you always greet people who save you?"

"What are you? A kitsune that tired of beguiling human men and thought it would try a male form for a change? Or do you expect me to believe that you are a _tengu_ as young as you look and came by that white hair naturally? I've been surprised by one _yokai_ tonight. I won't be taken in because the second works by guile where the first had only strength."

"I've been called a demon before. My hair isn't usually cited as the reason." His gaze went over her shoulder. "Fu-Dog? A little help here?" The beast walked up to the two and sniffed Katana before sitting down and releasing a happy bark. "Oh, you're useful," the male said dryly. "Look, I have no way of proving I'm a gargoyle and not a shapeshifter, but if you'll get that blade away from my neck, I can give you an explanation."

"Fine," Katana said, lowering her swords. Who had ever heard of a _yokai_ traveling with a gargoyle beast anyway? That put just enough doubt in her mind to hear the stranger out.

"I'm a traveler. My clan lives in a place that's far enough away that I'm going to assume for now you've never heard of it. It's not uncommon for people in my clan to be born with white hair."

Katana knew that different clans tended to have characteristics that made them look distinct from each other. If this male was from as far away as he claimed, she could accept such an odd trait was common enough there. It raised another question, though. "A traveler? Were you banished?"

"No. You might have noticed some fire before I showed up. That was the Phoenix. About five years ago, it took me from my clan and started to send me to different times and places. I really don't have a choice in the matter. I'm sometimes called the Timedancer."

"And your weapon?" Katana bent to examine it, sheathing her swords at the same time. "It looks a little like the firearms the Portuguese brought."

"So you have heard of Europe. Yeah, it's sort of like that. It's probably several hundred years more advanced than anything you've seen before though. I've already figured out I'm in Japan. Could you tell me what year it is?"

"Tenbun 22," replied the blue female distractedly. "So you are from Portugal?"

"A country well north of there called Scotland. Originally, at least. After that it's a long story. Tenbun 22 doesn't mean anything to me. Do you know what the Portuguese call the year?"

"I'm afraid not. I'm also afraid that all the commotion has likely put the bandits whose camp I am supposed to be looking for on guard, so even if I find it, I will not be able to find out anything else. Hopefully, Kaze-sensei had better luck. I'll believe your story for now. If you and your beast wish to come with me to my rendezvous point and then on to Ishimura, you may."

"I guess I will. What is that thing anyway?" he asked, gesturing to the creature they had felled.

"It is an _oni_. They do not normally come this far down from the mountains. It is not unheard of, but rare enough that no one plans for it. They are stupid but very aggressive, and their size makes them dangerous. I am sorry I did not introduce myself before. My name is Katana."

"I'm Brooklyn. So Katana, where…" He was cut off as the blue female rapidly drew a fan from her belt and hit him over the head with it.

"That is Katana-_san _to you. Don't they have manners in this Scotland you come from?"

The red male rubbed the spot where the fan had made impact. "I'm sorry if I offended you, Katana-san." He seemed like he was going to restate his question when another came to mind, "_What_ is that thing _made_ of?"

"The ribs are iron."

The two walked in silence for a while as Brooklyn reflected. Whatever magic the Phoenix used to translate for him wasn't working the way it normally did. For one thing, he had never offended someone completely in ignorance before. He knew vaguely that over the years he had visited places where the languages spoken had ways of expressing formality and gender that didn't exist in English, but the sorcery of the Phoenix had always compensated somehow. He had long since stopped worrying about the mechanics of it, but this time there was another thing. A number of the words she had used hadn't been translated for him the way they normally were. He hadn't simply heard them in English. He had heard them in Japanese with a sort of whisper in the back of his head providing him with the meaning. _Yokai _were demons; _oni _were ogres; _tengu _were gargoyles. Why hadn't he simply heard those words? One thing was for sure. His time in Ishimura was going to be interesting.

_Author notes: This isn't a one-shot for once! I'm actually going to try to write plot! Of course this means that right now I'm even more riddled with insecurity than usual. So be sure to tell me if I get too talky or something, because I really do want to improve. _

_I am doing a little Japanese history research for this, but I don't want to get too caught up in the details, so I will be simplifying and maybe just plan making up some things over the course of the story._


End file.
